A GANG who stabbed to death a lad of 15 in the street threw away NINE knives as they fled.

Police yesterday found the discarded blades, including a kitchen knife and a 2ft sword, as they hunted the mob of between eight and ten teenagers.

Alex's devastated family wept and hugged each other last night as they stared in horror at the blood-stained pavement where he died from a single stab wound to the heart.

Dad Kamondo Mulumbu choked back tears as he said: "These knives are out of control.

"Most young people are walking around with them. But Alex had nothing to do with knives. He didn't hang around with gangs that carried knives. He was a good, quiet boy who did nothing wrong."

Alex's brother Palory, speaking as he hugged a weeping aunt and cousin, added: "He was such a loving brother. I just do not know how he could have got into this sort of trouble. He was always the good boy. I just do not know why he has been picked on."

Alex and two friends got in a row with the gang of black teenagers after getting off a bus in Lambeth, South London, just after 11pm on Thursday.

The thugs pushed them around a corner then disappeared into a nearby estate before re-emerging with a horrifying array of weapons - baseball bats and hockey sticks as well as knives.

They ran off after stabbing Alex, leaving his distraught friends to flag down a passing car. The driver rushed Alex to hospital where he died.

Mr Mulumbu, a father of six who moved to Britain with his family from the Central African state of Zaire, said Alex had phoned him from the bus just minutes before he was attacked.

He said: "The last time I spoke to him was 11 pm. He said to me 'I'm coming home, I'm on the bus'."

Then in the early hours of yesterday Mr Mulumbu got a phone call from another of his sons - breaking the terrible news of the stabbing.

He added: "I went straight to the hospital. After 10 minutes a nurse came over to me and said they had done everything they could but my son was no longer alive.

"It's such a shock. The police are doing their job the best they can but this knife epidemic needs to be brought under control. Young people live and play here and it is terrifying."

Mr Mulumbu said Alex had returned to his home in Kennington at 4pm on Thursday afternoon after taking his final GCSE exam.

Two hours later he announced he was going out with pals to celebrate.

Mr Mulumbu, who lives just a short stroll from the murder scene, said he asked him to stay home. He added: "I told him not to go. I said 'Wait for me'."

Police are not certain of the motive for the attack. But they believe the attackers were local as they were able to arm themselves so quickly. Detective Superintendent Richard Hes-elden said: "There is no evidence Alex was physically restrained. But the group of three of them were chaperoned around the corner so there may have been some degree of compulsion.

"The friends flagged down a passing motorist who took him to hospital but despite emergency treatment he died."

Police who found the apparently-discarded knives also discovered a claw hammer. The Government is currently running a knife amnesty that is backed by the Mirror.

Mr Heselden said the killing of Alex was yet another tragic example of the danger of carrying knives.

He added: "This was a 15-year-old boy who had everything to live for and now he is no longer with us. I would urge everybody not to carry knives.

"Nobody wins when people carry knives. People say its for self-defence but it ends in one of two ways - either you get hurt or someone else does."

Alex's death comes three weeks after 15-year-old Kiyan Prince was stabbed to death outside his school in Edgware, North London.

'Alex was always a good, quiet boy. He had nothing to do with knives... or with gangs that carried knives'